Monthly Archives: November 2022

Speaker 1-  During these stressful times, it’s more important than ever to practice self love. But what exactly does that mean? Well, Dr. Erica Steele from holistic family practice medicine in Virginia Beach is here to explain. Good to see you. Dr. Steele. Yeah. Good

Speaker 2- to see you too, Cheryl.

Speaker 1- So happy you’re here. So let’s get started here. And I know we’re going to talk a lot about today about self love, and then just staying healthy in general.

Speaker 2- Yes, definitely. Yeah, it’s a month of love. We have February. And it’s also Heart Health Month. So it’s appropriate to have this discussion.

Speaker 1- All right, perfect. So we’re going to talk about heart first, and talk about the impact of metabolic health Nourish your body, mind, & spirit with our personalized nutrition plans at Holistic Family Practice.Book your appointment to practice self-love with diet today. and then how that really correlates with your heart as well.

Speaker 2- Yes, people don’t realize the metabolism is not just about weight gain or weight loss, it’s all of the chemical processes within the body. So if your metabolism isn’t working properly, your body is not going to detoxify. And a lot of times those toxins will, then the liver will dump it into your bloodstream, Nourish your body, mind, & spirit with our personalized nutrition plans at Holistic Family Practice.Book your appointment to practice self-love with diet today. create anemia, but also create issues with your heart and your bloodstream. So it’s really important to work on your diet, because that’s really the top of it, that your nutrition, what you’re putting into your body is going to fuel your metabolism.

Speaker 1- Yeah, and I love how you look at the total body approach to there’s no tunnel vision here. And so speaking of nutrition, I want to dive into that a little bit. Because how do we know what’s healthy? What’s not healthy? I mean, you hear you shouldn’t have too much fat, but for example,Nourish your body, mind, & spirit with our personalized nutrition plans at Holistic Family Practice.Book your appointment to practice self-love with diet today.  avocados have a lot of healthy fats.

Speaker 2- Exactly. Yeah, there’s a lot of nuance, especially when it comes to fat. And I think people really, it’s important for people to understand fat is fat, right? healthy fat, unhealthy fat, if you’re eating more than 20 to 25% ratio of your total calories, which is your metabolic rate. You know, unless you’re a long distance runner, or unless you’re a triathlete, or you’re hiking, you know, something like that, you know, you don’t need excess fat. And in fact, the more excess fat, that’s what creates issues with your lipid panel, your cholesterol, your triglycerides, things like that, because it’s clogging the liver, the liver can’t handle that much fat plus the gallbladder has to work harder. So a lot of people that have different gallbladder issues is as a result of that high fat diet, and then even removing the gallbladder, if they don’t take an enzyme. After that, they’re going to have a really difficult time digesting fats. So I think we think when we think heart health, immediately we go to fat. But we also have to be mindful that there is a balance between what’s healthy and what’s not healthy. And it’s all data driven. We really focus on holistic family practice on a data. So it’s data from the individual. So we’re not just taking it from generalizations. It’s all specific to the individual patient meme.

Speaker 1- Oh my gosh, okay, so how do we know what to eat and what not to eat?

Speaker 2- So the first thing we do in my practice is we put patients on a metabolic scale that comes over all their body composition. Nourish your body, mind, & spirit with our personalized nutrition plans at Holistic Family Practice.Book your appointment to practice self-love with diet today. So it goes over their metabolic rate, which is how many calories they need, their fat, their visceral fat, if they need to lose weight, if they need to gain muscle, and then that gives us a number for us to work with, then I’ll look at their lab work and see okay, are they processing glucose? Well, are they not processing glucose? Well as their triglycerides elevated, and looking at their lab work then determines what kind of diet that I want to put them on. And I really focus mainly on macros. So I focus on the metabolic rate, how many calories that the person needs to be taking in. And then I break down the ratios of macros, meaning your proteins, your fats, and your carbohydrates based off of the lab work that I have from the patient,

Speaker 1- you kind of put everything together. And I know you have a course and you teach classes as well about all this.

Speaker 2- We do. We do have a course coming up. It’s a four week course because I get a lot of demand for people asking like, I don’t know anything about nutrition teach me about nutrition. And so I decided to put together a course for anybody. You don’t have to be a member of our practice. You just text holistic nutrition to our office telephone number, and it’s four weeks. So we’ll talk about the role of nutrition. We’ll talk about heart health, we’ll talk about the impact of metabolic health, what’s healthy, what’s not healthy, will dispel a lot of myths, a lot of fad diets out there. We’ll go through that so that people have a deeper understanding so that they can make that powerful choice for themselves, even if they don’t use a practitioner such as myself.

Speaker 1- Dr. Steele, you’re so good at what you do. Thank you for joining us today.

Speaker 2- Awesome. Thank you for having me. All right.

Speaker  1 – Between raising children and managing households and pursuing careers. Women have a lot on their plates these days, and the stress could be affecting their health. Dr. Erica Steele from holistic family practice in Virginia Beach is here with some tips for creating balance in our busy lives. Hey, doctors, Hey, how are you? I’m well, I feel like I get a treatment every time a counseling session. I really everybody does. By the way, going on. So you know, all of the stuff that I have going on here. Yeah, ching. Um, firstly, how do we create balance in our life?

Speaker  2 – Yeah. Well, we’ve talked about this, I think many times before, I think number one is not being so hard on ourselves. Okay. I think we as women, especially we have this tendency to strive for perfection. And it just doesn’t exist. I have in my office, I have this picture that hangs from a quote from Salvador Dali that says, Have no fear of perfection, you’ll never reach it. Oh, great.

Speaker  1 – I just fit, be forgiving.

Speaker  2 – credibly forgiving of yourself and accepting of yourself, okay. It’s just not realistic to be able to do all things and be all things to all people. And I think we as women, because we’re so compassionate, empathetic understanding. And we have that capacity to raise children, that we extend that throughout throughout all of our relationships and all of our tasks Creating Balance that we have to accomplish in our lives.

Speaker  1 –  Yeah, you hear some of the Wiser moms telling you, you know, like, act like you’re on an aeroplane put the mask on yourself first. And then on your children? Are you fine? Yes, are doing that though.

Speaker  2 – I think they’re crashing and burning, you know, they’re coming into my office, and they’re stressed out, their hormones are a mess, they’re eating unhealthy, they’re exhausted, they’re trying to keep up with everything. And they unfortunately develop, you know, debilitating health care conditions as a result of all of the internalized pressure and stress.

Speaker  1 – Okay, so what do we need to do to solve this problem, we know that it’s a problem, we know that it can help, it can hurt our immune system and make us unhealthy. So what do we do?

Speaker  2 -So what I always recommend people to do is the first hour of the day is just for them. Okay? So that may mean you have to go to bed a little later. That may mean you have to get wake up a little bit earlier. Right. But that first hour is dedicated to and it may not even be an hour as well, like, but the first you know, once you open your eyes, breathwork you know, just deep breathing, you know, deep meditative breathing for 10 rounds. Right? Okay? Meditation, you know, meditation has been showing to really improve a lot of mental focus, balance, health, overall stress levels, reduction. And then from there, you know, do the normal, take a shower, personal hygiene, all of that kind of stuff before you even set the day? I had a lot of cases before that. They’d be like, Well, I have little kids. Oh, my gosh, I think we don’t realize that we can actually teach our children like how to live and how to take care of themselves. Yeah, so we created a little snack drawer for them. So like, if they get up early in the morning, they know they go to little snack drawer, they go and they eat that up, they sit at the table, they do their thing right now, obviously, you want to make sure else’s

Speaker  1 – child Right, exactly.

Speaker  2 – Like it, you know, I’m not saying like, you know, just leave them but you know, you don’t have to jump up, be there. You know, like, it’s okay, we can start the day because if you start the day like that, then the tone sets for the day, meaning that you’re not going to be rushed and hurried into every single instance circumstance situation, you’re going to be more mindful and more attentive. And

Speaker  1 – what role do you think societal norms play in women working themselves to death? I mean, you know, making themselves sick, because they’re not willing to take time for themselves. Yes,

Speaker  2 – I think we just are always comparing ourselves to culture, you know, we see this celebrity or this mom, or the team guys. Hello, exactly. Or then we’re looking at Facebook and Instagram. And we’re like, you know, envious. I had a case, unfortunately, this last week, and they’re like, you know, this other family bought this big, $5,000 5000 square foot house. And this is, and they’re upset, because they don’t have that. And I’m like, well, first, you have to clean that thing. My mind goes practical, always. However, it’s like, you know, being grateful for who you are, what you have. And what you’ve created for yourself is so important. You know, we we have and we do exactly what we have. And we can do and we can’t do any more. Right? And that going back to that perfection and need to perform and do and drive and our culture society, just as Americans, we are very much in the Go, go, go go go. Unlike other countries, let’s say in Europe, where you know, they have a lot of downtime and relaxation, and they’re walking everywhere. And it’s a little bit more steadfast. Well, you

Speaker  1 – know, I have more questions. And so you know, where do people go if they have more questions, and I understand you’re doing a Facebook Live as well? Yes,

Speaker  2 – we are. So we have two options for consultation with our office for all those moms that are super, super exhausted and tired. We have a wellness exam, as well as a comprehensive initial consultation just mentioned Coast live, and we’ll get you set up. All right. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. I’ll ask her questions during the show. So that’s how you can get in touch with Dr exactly and we have our Facebook Live coming up on the 20th to 30

Speaker  1 – Great thank you Dr Steele sure

Speaker 1 – Recently, several celebrity men like Will Smith and Johnny Depp, Fat Boys have made headlines for their bad behaviour, signalling possible mental health challenges. So Dr. Erica steal from holistic, holistic family practice in Virginia Beach joins us now to weigh in. Good morning. Dr. Steele, how you doing?

Speaker 2 – I’m doing very well, April, as always,

Speaker 1 – we all have had opinions. And we’ve walked away with opinions about the slap heard around the world. And of course, the Johnny Depp case that’s on Court TV, you know, what’s on Court TV? So I mean, what what does this mean, as far as you know, mental wellness?

Speaker 2 – Well, I think, especially for mental health awareness month, which we’re in in May, it really brings a lot more awareness to men’s mental health, and the perspective that really men like everyone else, including women struggle with mental health issues.

Speaker 1 – Do you think any of it is related to us being in quarantine for as long as we had and dealing with COVID? At all? What’s your take on it?

Speaker 2 – Well, I think with court with quarantine it, it allows people to kind of sit with themselves. And when we’re so busy running around doing all the things right? We tend to neglect our mental and our emotional state. And so when we have to slow down and be fully present with ourselves, then we have to deal with the things that we haven’t really dealt with in the past.

Speaker 1 – Yeah, I’m now I’m interested in a holistic health care perspective. What can we all learn from these scenarios?

Speaker 2 – So I think what we can learn specifically from let’s say, Will Smith, because they’re both different. Will Smith really was triggered by something in the past, right. And so he was triggered by words that Chris Rock said, and it really triggers that fight or flight response, that primitive response that we all have, a lot of us will either fight flight or freeze. In the case of Will Smith, he fought in the case of Chris Rock, he froze. And so that’s what we can glean from that perspective, at least with that particular case.

Speaker 1 – Okay, and then moving on to Johnny Depp. What’s your feedback on that?

Speaker 2 – So with Johnny Depp and again, similar to Will Smith, but different. He mentioned something in the case where he said, you know, he realised at a certain point that he was married to his mother and Johnny Depp experienced abuse in his childhood from the past are experienced adverse childhood experiences. And so he didn’t deal with that. And so a lot of times what happens is, if you don’t deal with those things from the past, mentally, as well as emotionally, you tend to normalise certain behaviours, certain relationships. And then in the case of Johnny Depp, when you don’t deal with your mental and emotional state, you tend to act out using drugs and alcohol to suppress unhealed emotions from the past.

Speaker 1 – Right. And I just want to clarify, Johnny Depp hasn’t been charged with a crime, he’s facing a civil lawsuit, or a defamation case. So what are the viewers supposed to walk away with from these experiences that they see on television from celebrities?

Speaker 2 – Well, I think the first thing is, is to take celebrities off of a pedestal, because so often, we hold them to this much higher standard, that we think that they’re supposed to not be human and, and all actuality they are human. And then they have a huge opportunity to be able to teach us all, especially our men, right, because men to have a tendency to feel ashamed with their emotions, not deal with their emotions, suppress their emotions, because they want to be strong, perceived strong, or they want to be, you know, unstoppable, or whatever we’re all who knows. But the real reality is, is that we, as human beings must deal with our mental and our emotional health. Because if we don’t, it can lead to sabotage, like, for instance, relationships. And, you know, I mean, Will Smith was getting an award that evening for his work, and it was so clouded by the events that took place. So it shows that even with no matter what your status is, no matter how much money you make, no matter what professional athletes that you have, or even personal ones, if you don’t deal with your mental and emotional health and well being, it’s eventually going to catch up with you.

Speaker 1 – So if there are people out there that kind of want to go a step further and deeper, you’re offering some help, especially for men that you know, are dealing with mental health issues.

Speaker 2 – Yeah, so my, my practice is very unique. It’s not this traditional practice, you go, you sit down, you talk, it’s more, we’re doing a webinar where we kind of go into my perspective. So it’s really about teaching people, awareness, educating them, and then coaching them and teaching them practically what they can do step by step. It’s a very non judgmental, very loving or supportive atmosphere, and really just a really good space to talk. And so we’re hosting that free webinar. Anybody and everybody can come men especially are encouraged to attend. But of course women and and all people can come.

Speaker 1 – Alright, Dr. Erica Steele, thank you so much for this.

Speaker 2 – Awesome Thank you Miss. Thanks for having me sure

Speaker 1 – addicts play a role in our health, from our risk of heart disease to cancer to mental health issues. But our next guest says trauma can be passed down in our DNA as well. Dr. Erica Steele from holistic family practice in Virginia Beach is here to explain Hey, Erica, how you doing? Hi, I’m, well, how are you? Good, I hadn’t heard that. So explain what that means trauma being passed in our DNA.

Speaker 2 – So this is a relatively new frontier in healthcare. And being an innovator I’m always looking at, and also always wanting to find the cause, like I always want to find the root cause as a naturopath. And so what they’ve studied, as they’ve become more aware of genetics, and metal genetics, which are all are all of the enzymatic processes that make up the DNA and, you know, move everything in the body is structured around that, they found that there’s actually transgenerational Healing Ancestral Trauma that is passed down from generation to generation, which I find just to be fascinating. And so that impacts the genes of the DNA of children coming in. And then as we know, through epigenetics, the environment to which we put the genes in that that leaves people more susceptible to chronic disease, etc. So it’s really fat. I mean, we’re like at the very beginning of understanding all the impacts of this on our health. But I think it’s fascinating, and I definitely wanted to share it with your viewers today.

Speaker 1 – Yeah, that is fascinating. It’s called ancestral Healing Ancestral Trauma. So I mean, for somebody like me, who’s African American, so are you saying my ancestors who may have been slaves in the past, pass that down to my DNA? Correct. And

Speaker 2 – I have African genetics, obviously, as well. And Native American, right. And so I got it kind of both a genocide as well as the impact of slavery on my mother’s side. And this is what got me intrigued with this. On my mother’s side, my mother’s side, suffered with mental health issues that was passed down generation to generation, to the point that my mother, unfortunately suffers from di D, which is dissociative identity disorder. So that kind of already started getting me and growing up around that really got me inspired to kind of learn more about how the genetics impact because of course, I didn’t want it to affect me, and impact me, I watched this incredibly brilliant woman, just over the years to grade further and further and further, upon research, and upon learning, I understood that the effects of slavery had negatively impacted the men in the men, the protectors in the African lineage from slavery, etc. And then there was impacts of sexual abuse and things like that, that that impacted her DNA as well. So all around her neurotransmitters, and even mine, when I got my EEG done, I got my brain map, that whole schizophrenic network was all impacted and affected because of that. Now, because I was aware and I was educated, and I was able to do something about it. I wasn’t I didn’t have to be a victim to my genes, I was able to overcome it. So it’s pretty fascinating the power that we have, now that genetics are coming out, and we’re able to really put all these pieces together,

Speaker 1 – my goodness. So it’s not just the environment that you grow in, but you also have to consider the DNA. So how do you avoid this? Or how do you get past it like you’ve done?

Speaker 2 – Yeah, so I did an EEG which is a brain map. I’ve got some excellent professionals that I work with, that are in the allopathic world that can do this as well. So we do EGS we look at that we also look at like your 23andme or your ancestry results as well. Healing Ancestral Trauma We look at those and we start to stabilise in addition to doing other like CBT style treatments, EFT I throw in some Kundalini in there, some meditation, some guided imagery, as well as really supporting what we call the HPA axis, the hypothalamus, pituitary adrenal, because the adrenals when you’re when you come in with trauma, they also found this even with Holocaust, DNA, Jewish DNA that the cortisol was coming in low cortisol is the stress hormone, and just because it had already been exhausted, so making sure we support those nutritionally supplementally I mean, it’s really a very incredible time and I think some of the current events are really trauma to re traumatising people that already have trauma stored within their DNA. So now is really the time to really look at this and push this frontier forward in in healthcare and in medicine throughout Well, I’m very excited to be a part of

Speaker 1 – Dr. Erica Steele, it is fascinating. We’re out of time real quick, how can people find you?

Speaker 2 – So, all over the place, they can call our office, they can look me up online, we do have classes that are coming up where we can explore. So if this message calls to anybody to really explore their trauma, feel free and also to because lifestyle has so much to do with it. You know, a lot of times people that have been traumatised also experienced chronic disease and don’t take care of themselves. We also have a lot of healthy programmes to help people get back on track. And of course, as we’re doing that, all this stuff comes up in the midst of everything. So the webinar dates are June 20 to 24, June 29. And I look forward to seeing everyone there. All right.

Speaker 1 – Thank you so much Dr. Steele.

Speaker 1 – Welcome back. Alright spring could be a great time to start practising healthier lifestyle habits. And today Dr. Erica Steele from holistic family practice in Virginia Beach is here to discuss one of the latest health fads known as detoxification. We’ve talked a lot about it here on coastline, Dr. Siegel, welcome back to the show. It’s great to see you today.

Speaker 2 – Thank you so much for having me again.

Speaker 1 – Let’s talk about this detoxification. What is it for folks who don’t know and why should people look into it?

Speaker 2 – Yeah, so detoxification is the process of ridding your body of environmental toxins. We have metabolic in products with our waste products from just our metabolism, but then we also are detoxifying from all the different chemicals that are in our environment.

Speaker 1 – Alright, so what sort of symptoms might somebody be experiencing if Springtime Detox Program is going to be in their best interest?

Speaker 2 – So excessive sweating body odour is one of those things bad breath, fatigue, brain, fog, gassing, bloating, constipation. Those are all typical symptoms that somebody really needs to detoxify their organs.

Speaker 1 – I’ve got a I’ve got quite a few of those on the list here. All right, so let’s say that somebody not any particular daytime talk show host in particular, has some of these symptoms, why would detox be the best option to help them?

Speaker 2 – Well, detoxification number one, especially in spring, it’s a great transition, because we tend to eat heavier in the winter. And then we transition to eating lighter in the spring where it was, excuse me, Springtime Detox Program, were more active and that kind of thing. So detoxification can be a really healthy tool for overall Oregon health and function, as well as hygiene. We’re taught, you know, to brush your teeth, we’re taught to take a shower, those sorts of things. But we’re not necessarily taught to detoxify our organs and how to detoxify our organs.

Speaker 1 – A lot of that is is detoxifying your diet, right, like eating pure foods, is that right?

Speaker 2 – Yeah, a lot of times I tend to advise patients, if they’re going to do it themselves without a health care professional is to start just with their food, right? So we tend to know what we’re eating and what we’re not eating. That’s healthy, right? We tend to know if we’re eating junk, we’re eating processed foods, those sorts of things. So eliminating those but there’s also some really popular food based detoxes such as like the Daniel fast or the whole 30 which remove all of the pro inflammatory foods that are in the in the in the diet, and then we detoxify our bodies naturally, just by removing those things out of the diet.

Speaker 1 – And you’ve talked a lot about this on our show, in your segment, the holistic wellness men and we had just one yesterday about crafting better metabolism and your body. Alright, so once we take care of our diet, what’s next for somebody looking to detox?

Speaker 2 – So once you look at your diet, then that’s when we use herbs or we’ll use homoeopathy. A lot of times I’ll look at labs to be able to determine that a funny story. The first time I ever detoxified somebody I was like, I was like, you know, brand new naturopath. I was like, You know what, I’m just gonna go do it, wing it. And the patient actually got really sick. And she called me up as like, oh my gosh, what did I do? I ran labs and looked in her adrenals which are stress glands. She was a busy real estate agent. And they were just exhausted electrolytes were just in the toilet. And so when I learned then was this, I’m never going to detoxify somebody without looking at their labs, because there’s so many things that you really just don’t know, she was, you know, super busy, high energy, but then your body needs extra energy in order to detoxify. So I always look at labs. So of course I can review somebody’s labs for them. We also have a 21 day Springtime Detox Program, and we have some webinars coming up as well to really educate you more, because that’s really important, especially if you have a diagnosis or you’re on medications or things like that.

Speaker 1 – Yeah, speaking of your webinars, you’re going into more detail about detoxification one coming up soon. How can we watch it?

Speaker 2 – Yeah, so we have it. It’s an online webinar. You can text our office, they’ll give you a link links on our website, on our socials, etc. And so you’ll be able to tune in then and it’s an hour long and I’ll educate you from beginning to end. I always love to educate people about how they can live naturally.

Speaker 1 – Dr. Erica Steele, you always teach me so much I legitimately learn so much every time I talk to you. Thank you so much for coming on the show. I can’t wait to talk to you next time.

Speaker 2 – Awesome. Sounds good. Have a great day. You too.

Speaker 1 – Welcome back. Well, with warmer weather approaching, many people are getting back to healthier habits. But what does it take to lose weight and keep it off? Here with some answers is Dr. Erica Steele from holistic family practice in Virginia Beach. Dr. Steele? Dr. Erica, as I call you, how you doing

Speaker 2 – today? I’m doing so well April’s so good to see you. Good to

Speaker 1 – see you as well. Okay, so we’re coming around that time of year again, you know, winter is out, spring is in, and we want to improve, you know, our, the way we look and perhaps our weight loss. So, any suggestions for that?

Speaker 2 – Well, it really actually depends on your mindset, right? And that’s surprising, because most people think, Oh, I gotta break out the shoes. I’ve got to start working out, I’ve got to start eating right. But what does it take in order to do that? It takes a Metabolism and Health mindset, right? So if I am thinking thoughts about okay, how can I be built my Metabolism and Health? And how can I create health, then, of course, your actions and your behaviours are then going to follow? Okay,

Speaker 1 – so are you saying it’s like a self fulfilling prophecy?

Speaker 2 – Yes, exactly. Yeah. So if I’m sitting around that saying, Oh, I’m looking in the mirror and going, oh, I need to pinch this or oh, I’m a little bit overweight here. Or you’re constantly telling yourself all the identity, meaning the thoughts and the and the feelings around being overweight, then, of course, you’re going to continue to create those habits.

Speaker 1 – Okay, so where do we start? Do we, like start giving ourselves positive affirmations? Like, oh, girl, look at those curves? You look good? Or why do you do it? Yeah, in

Speaker 2 – 100%. So we’re gonna start with that mental diet. We talked about that last month, mental diet is what you’re telling yourself. So I’m fit, trim, and beautiful, I’m sexy, I’m amazing. I’m toned. What it is you want to create, you want to start telling yourself that even if the 3d even if our current reality isn’t showing that,

Speaker 1 – okay, so once you get the mindset together, then how do you follow it up with good habits.

Speaker 2 – So once your thought process keeps going, you’re going to start to feel better, and then you’re going to be more motivated into action, meaning you’re gonna want to necessarily order the salad over the burger, or you’re gonna want to get up and work out and take a walk somewhere, your actions are then going to follow based off of your thoughts as well as your feelings. Okay, so

Speaker 1 – I’m thinking about metabolism and women of a certain age, you know, our metabolism slows down. So is that something to consider?

Speaker 2 – That’s actually not accurate. Metabolism and Health Think that Oh, because I get older ageing is not a prerequisite for poor health, believe it or not, so we don’t get off the hook based off of that. Metabolism is all the chemical processes in the body, which starts with what you eat, but also how you digest and assimilate. So as people get older, their lifestyle habits get a little bit worse. And so that’s why people tend to associate ageing with a slower metabolism. But it’s really not true. I have 80 year old patients that are fit, trim and healthier than some of my 30 and 40 year old patients.

Speaker 1 – Oh, I didn’t know that. And I know that you do have a programme that deals with the metabolism coming out. Can you tell us a little bit more about that?

Speaker 2 – I’m so excited about this, I’ve spent the last two and a half years building out all of these data, you know, I’m such a data girl. We’ll talk about it more in my webinar coming up. It’s free mindset and metabolism. I’m really excited because I am able to take all of the data to be able to really fine tune a programme for people that are really looking to change their lifestyle from a mental, emotional, Metabolism and Health of course, a physical perspective. Okay,

Speaker 1 – I do have a question for you to back up a little bit. Once you get the mindset together. Do you then have to like restart your metabolism? Are there ways to kind of get your if you have a slow metabolism? Are there ways to get it pumping?

Speaker 2 – You’re so cute. Yes, of course we are. The body is made to heal itself. And it always wants to heal itself. So we look at lab work, we’re able to support with different supplements, we’re able to get the body to be able to work efficiently and effortlessly. The body was made to heal, we just need to know how to do it.

Speaker 1 – Okay. And then the mindset to work out. helped me with that one.

Speaker 2 – It’s it’s really about what you enjoy, right? So I enjoy Pilates. I just started rowing, I actually really enjoy that as well. So I do things that I enjoy, but it also you know, it’s about what is what do they say like 90% In the kitchen, right? If you’re not a big fan of working out, you don’t need to go run off to the CrossFit gym. You know, you can do the simple things like walking or moving your body or yoga really, especially as you age it’s important to stretch because as you know things get stiffer things, you know, need to be able to be relaxed and looser. So yeah, definitely. All

Speaker 1 – right. Well, there’s the information to get in touch with Dr. Erica, thank you so much for answering our questions today.

Speaker 2 – Awesome. Thank you, Abraham. Great day you too.

Speaker 1 – Welcome back to coast live about 3 million Americans live with the autoimmune disease known as celiac disease and millions have difficulty tolerating gluten. That means for them breads and other foods with certain proteins are off the table. I know all about that. Here with us today to talk about gluten free diets is Dr. Erica Steele from holistic family practice. Hey, Dr. Steele, good to see you

Speaker 2 – Good to see you as well. Good morning to you.

Speaker 1 – Good morning. So national Raising Celiac Disease Awareness day was yesterday. Explain what Celiac disease is to people.

Speaker 2 – So celiac is an intolerance or an allergy to wheat, wheat gluten. Soy wheat gluten is found in a lot of normal products such as bread, pasta, sometimes have it as well. And a lot of packaged foods has it as well, crackers and things like that.

Speaker 1 – So why can a gluten free diet be so important? And so life changing?

Speaker 2 – a gluten free diet really helps to lower inflammation in the body helps to lower histamine responses, which are all contributing factors to any kind of autoimmune condition.

Speaker 1 – Gotcha. So I know when I started to realise I had issues with gluten, my main issues were all in my gut. So what are some symptoms of gluten reactions and I know for celiac, it’s a lot worse,

Speaker 2 – of course, and celiac is an allergy, there’s sensitivities, there’s intolerances. So some things to look for. I see with little kids, they’ll have like rashes on arms, like almost like a chicken arm look to it. You can have redness, itchy as well gassing bloating, you can have kind of a gluten baby after you eat. That’s a classic one.

Speaker 1 – Oh, I call that the food baby. Yep, I you know, I’ve gotten that for such a long time people go oh, are you expecting? No, it’s just my food, baby. So I know all about that. And so you don’t have to be celiac to be gluten sensitive, right?

Speaker 2 – No, actually, I’ve seen a lot of people that if they can’t process B complex as well, and folic acid, they have that MTHFR genetic variant. Raising celiac disease awareness Those oftentimes are gluten sensitive and gluten reactive.

Speaker 1 – So it’s so interesting when you talk about all this stuff, because how do you go about diagnosing it because I know this can be a complicated thing.

Speaker 2 – It can be Well, I definitely you know, you can do a salivary MTHFR DNA panel to kind of assess that. You can also look at your Secretory IgA that’s going to be in like a organic acids, which is a urine profile. There’s also many IgG tests that you can take to there’s like blood tests. But a lot of times I find that just eating it and feeling how your body responds is really, you know, very helpful. You can take your pulse before you put it in your mouth, you can also put it in your mouth and then take your pulse again, if your pulse goes up more than six that lets you know that your body’s having some reaction to whatever it is you’re eating.

Speaker 1 – Oh, I never knew that about the pulse thing and eating gluten free. I know some people think it’s so daunting, but over the years, it’s gotten a lot easier.

Speaker 2 – Oh my gosh, it’s so easy. There’s so many like bonza, chickpea pastas and things like that. And then you know, even with the breads, the breads have come a long way and making your own there’s like some cashew bread recipes that Dr. Perlmutter puts out. With, he wrote a book called The Grain Brain, which is all about gluten sensitivities and the reaction to the brain. And so there’s a lot of really good resources out there. And now more than ever, it’s really gotten a lot easier.

Speaker 1 – So if you text gluten For more information, what are you going to learn? And how else can people learn more? And how else can you help them? Yeah,

Speaker 2 – so we have an app that we use for education within our practice. Our practice is built on education, accountability and coaching. And so our app has education on it. So if you’re interested in going gluten free, please text our office and we’ll send you the link.

Speaker 1 – All right. Dr. Steele, thank you so much. We really appreciate it. Always good to see you. Awesome. Have an amazing day. You as well and all the information is there on the screen does visit holistic family practice VA to contact Dr. Steele or call the number right there. Thanks so much again.

Speaker 1 – fads come and go. And our next guest says that for National Nutrition Month, it’s time to start thinking and eating holistically. Dr. Erica Steele is with holistic family practice. And she joins us now. Hey, Dr. Steele. Good to see you again.

Speaker 2 – Hello, Cheryl, how are you?

Speaker 1 – I am doing fabulous. So a lot of people are on special diets. Sometimes it’s for dietary restrictions, other times because it’s a fad diet, maybe they want to do it to be healthier. Maybe they want to do it to lose weight. But let’s talk about this. Why do you think they are so popular?

Speaker 2 – I think fats are really popular because people Americans in general are always looking for that quick fix, right? And so, you know, they’ll follow an Instagram influencer, or they’ll YouTube something. And then they’re like, Okay, this sounds good. This resonates with me. So I’m going to jump on it and do it. And maybe they do it, well, maybe they don’t do it. Well, maybe they need it. National Nutrition Month Maybe they don’t need it. Maybe it works. Maybe it doesn’t work, you can see the dilemma.

Speaker 1 -Alright, so what are some of the issues with fad diets that people can run into.

Speaker 2 – So a lot of people like they’ll they’ll just kind of pick one, there’s no science behind it. And as you know, and we’ve talked about before, like, I’m very science based, very individual, it’s all based off of lab work. And so people don’t have that data. So they’re just kind of randomly picking one that resonates with them intuitively, and then they may try it. And again, they may not be optimising it, they may not be doing it well, right. Or their body just may not not, you know, respond to it. And so they can actually create a lot of damage to the digestive system. And as you know, there’s so many fads that come and go, and sometimes they get rebranded and renamed and that sort of thing, because it’s all really based off of your macro ratios, right? And so macro meaning your macronutrients, your carbohydrates, your proteins and your fats. National Nutrition Month But if you’re not consistent with anything, the body doesn’t really get used to, it doesn’t adapt to it. So you actually can create a lot of damage to the digestive system that you want to be concerned about. And because the majority of the hormonal system, immune system, as well as neurological system is housed in your digestive tract, if you’re going on these fad diets over and over and over again and changing it up, you can really do a lot of damage to those systems as well.

Speaker 1 – Oh, yikes. And so it’s hard though, when you’re seeing influencers on Instagram eating this and doing try this, you’ll feel better, you’ll lose the bloat. So what can people do to avoid the diet fads and then having all these problems?

Speaker 2 – Again, it really boils down to data. So you know, looking at a person’s lab work, right and evaluating that. So if your lipid panel, let’s say your cholesterol, your triglycerides, your HDL LDL, are really high, right? That means that your liver is not processing fats. So you probably don’t want to go on a high fat diet, right. So high fat diets, unfortunately, don’t shoot the messenger. But keto is a high fat diet, Atkins is a high fat diet, even veganism and vegetarianism trend to go higher fat because the protein sources are also fat sources too. So I think it’s really about understanding nutrition and how how the nuts and bolts of nutrition work the carbohydrates, proteins, and fats, and understanding those ratios. And I’m a big tracker, I’m all about tracking my food, mostly just because of data, we don’t have data, we don’t really know it doesn’t really exist, right not to give licence to go eat anything unhealthy. But, you know, the fact of the matter is, is we really need to look at the data and modulate and see what it works. There’s a place for intuition. As a holistic doctor, I’m all about the feeling and all about how it feels in my body. But if we don’t have the data to back it up, we don’t have balance. And so using the data along with intuition, and once your body kind of clicks in, and you know what it feels like, for me, I do really well on a high protein, mid range carb, low fat diet, and I can feel if my body if I’ve eaten maybe a little bit of fat, that’s a little bit more and so then I’ll overcompensate. And I’ll have some carbohydrate, but that’s after years of training myself and training my body. And also looking at my data.

Speaker 1 – I understand this because when I eat certain things, my stomach just rejects it. And so I know, okay, don’t eat like that. But that’s what you were for. I mean, you look at the lab work and the data and you also educate people and you have some nutrition programmes. Tell us about that real

Speaker 2 – quick. Yeah, we’re super excited. We have a holistic nutrition National Nutrition Month programme that’s actually coming out. And it’s a four week programme. So you don’t even necessarily need to, you know, use a provider like myself. This is a baseline programme that really teaches about all of the macros metabolic rate it teaches about, we talks about heart healthy, right? We talk about what’s healthy, what’s not healthy. We go through all the fads, we look at the ratios, and really empower people to really understand how this these things work, especially just in the world that we’re living in with all of the influencers in YouTube and Facebook groups and all this sort of stuff. I really find a calling to really educate people on The actual science behind nutrition and how it works

Speaker 1 – good to have you break it all down Dr Steele thank you so much as always

Speaker 2 – awesome thanks for having me Cheryl

Speaker 1: What a pretty view outside. In order to be healthy, we need to exercise our body and our mind. But how exactly do you improve brain health? Dr. Erica Steele from Holistic Family Practice in Virginia Beach is here to explain. Hey, Dr. Still good to see you again. Likewise. Definitely. All right, so brain health, we don’t focus on that a lot.

Speaker 2: No, we don’t. Fascinating because our brain controls everything. It really does.

Speaker 1: The brain gut connection. Exactly. And the rest of the body. Exactly.

Speaker 2: Our emotions, our reactivity, everything. Yeah, I definitely think that we overlook it and I think it’s one of the most important things to utilize. It’s interesting because we often operate out of this very reactive, primitive mind. Oh yeah. And a lot of times people don’t realize as a naturopath, we work a lot with anthropology and how, the body and the. The human beings have developed, et cetera. So we have this primitive mind. We wake up in the morning, am I gonna be eaten or am I going to eat? Kind of thing. And then we react based off of that. Our brains grew. Now we have our subconscious mind. We have experiences, perceptions of those experiences, beliefs, core beliefs. And now what the trick is really getting that prefrontal cortex working. So we have logic, voice, reason, decision making, executive function.

Speaker 1: So how do you know if your brain is quote unquote,

Speaker 2: I would say how your emotions are and how you deal with difficult situations.

Speaker 1: Okay. Obviously right now it’s timely with coronavirus. Exactly. There’s a lot of fear. There’s a lot of panic going on, of course. And not just about getting sick, but also people are worried about their finances as well.

Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly. Because we can’t control it, right? So there’s something outside of ourselves that we can’t control, and then it triggers that primitive mind. We go into fight or flight. So we totally miss that prefrontal cortex and a lot of times people’s prefrontal cortex isn’t even working, functioning as efficiently.

Speaker 1: Okay. So explain that a little more maybe in layman’s terms. So what does that mean to the,

Speaker 2: so our logic, our voice, our decision making? So something happens outside of my control. What’s the first thing I do? Do I react? Do I go, oh my gosh, I gotta go. And usually it’s the people do. Yeah. I gotta go stuck up on hands. Oh my. I get hoard products. Yeah, exactly. And everybody’s gonna die, and I’m gonna lose all my money. And it’s, gosh. And then we send ourselves into the spiral. So then you have your adrenal glands, their pumping cortisol. You have epinephrine. No epinephrine. It’s very hard on the body. Not to mention it inhibits the immune system. Oh my gosh. So it’s like you’re spinning in circles and

Speaker 1: neurotransmitters. Your brain are going crazy and

Speaker 2: you can’t do anything. You can’t function. Let’s say, you get into a fight with your significant other, right? And it’s oh my gosh, now I’m gonna obsess over and I’m gonna ruminate over and I’m gonna get upset about it. I’m gonna think about it. I can’t let it go. And then, your work suffers. You know your kids, they’re on their own.

Speaker 1: So that’s affecting your health ultimately. Exactly. And what can you do to combat that? Exactly. Are there specific supplements we should be taking or other types of exercises?

Speaker 2: Yeah, I would say, the first thing, the most effective. Pub reviewed research is mindfulness and meditation. Prefrontal cortex, when you can get into meditation every single day for at least 15 minutes, that’s really important. Of course there’s meditation, right? But then there’s also other things. There’s yoga, there’s various different things that you can do to be able to help you stay well and get. both on a cognitive level as well as an emotional level.

Speaker 1: That’s so true because yoga puts everything at ease. Yeah. And when you meditate, you’re supposed to tune everything else out, and I would assume it would relax your body and help your adrenals.

Speaker 2: Yeah. Those alpha ways raise, but also to your present in the moment, right? Brain Health is Important it’s true what they say. If you’re living, if you’re depressed, you’re living in the past. If you’re anxious, you’re living in the future. But all we really can do is work on. And so that’s what we wanna stay in. So yoga, meditation, but then also too, getting your body back into balance. So essential fatty acids are really good with that. A nice balance of epa, D H E A, those sorts of thing. Dha, excuse me, acry oil. Those things are really good, healthy fats in your diet are really healthy. And of course, avoiding sugar. Reducing your bread, your pasta, your rice, your dairy, all, all the things that are yummy that everybody eats.

Speaker 1: But when you say healthy fats, I think avocado of course. Love of avocado. So it’s, it eats,

Speaker 2: yes, exactly. But then not too much. Cuz it’s all about balance. Moderation’s. Yeah. So if you more than 20% fat, then you’re gonna gain weight. Yeah.

Speaker 1: Oh my gosh. Know there’s all these little things. It’s so much good information. You have classes? We do. So let’s talk about that. And we’re trying to learn more.

Speaker 2: So we have, I have two sets of classes. So my first set is in our practice, those are more educational classes. We talk about brain health. I go into like neurotransmitter testing. Yay. And what we do with that organic acid testing, what we do with that. And then more practical things for people. To do, right? Because that’s like really important for people to get education information. We also have meditation classes. I teach yoga as well to really help people, work that prefrontal cortex.

Speaker 1: All right, and there’s your website as well at the bottom of the screen there and all your information. Dr. Steele, thank you so much. Here’s all about just.

Speaker 2: Taking deep breaths and relaxing and just staying in the moment. Yes, and using hand sanitizer.

Speaker 1: Okay. Thank you. Really appreciate it.